After transferring from Westinghouse following her freshman year, Samantha Velasco’s soccer career at De La Salle got off to a bit of a slow start.
Heading into last spring, Velasco was still recovering from a torn ACL and sat out some games due to Illinois High School Association transfer rules.
Now, the junior midfielder is figuring out how she fits in with the Meteors. She has started all season and helped her team get to state for the first time in program history.
“Last year started off a little rocky,” Velasco said. “This year has been great. There’s a lot of competitiveness on this team, but there’s this feeling of wanting to give it even more than you can just for the team.
“You see the girl on your right pushing and running for the ball, and that motivates you to keep going. Our coaches are great at motivational speeches and everything, too.”
And Velasco, for one, will go down in the record books as the first De La Salle girls soccer player to score a goal at state.
Her strike in the second half on a free kick was the biggest bright spot Friday for the Meteors, who lost 4-1 to Chatham Glenwood in a Class 2A semifinal at North Central College in Naperville.
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Emily Samuels made eight saves for the Meteors (17-4-5), who will take on Crystal Lake Central (18-4) — which lost 2-0 to Benet — at 11 a.m. Saturday in the third-place game.
Regardless of the result, De La Salle will be taking home the first state trophy for a girls team in any sport in school history.
The Meteors had not even won a regional in girls soccer before last season, when they won a sectional.
“It’s amazing,” De La Salle coach Carlos Nunez said. “It’s great to see our fans out here — a lot of alums. They all know what we’ve been working toward. It’s really cool to have people come out of the woodwork and thank us for the work we’ve put in.
“We remind the girls all the time that they’re not just playing for themselves, but for all the players in the history of our program who would have loved to be in this position.”
Glenwood (21-4-1) put the Meteors in an early hole just 83 seconds into the first half when Rowann Law scored off a free kick from Erin Mansfield. Haden Vlcek added two goals and Lyla Franke also scored for the Titans.
Velasco broke the shutout for De La Salle, taking a free kick from 20 yards on the left side of the field and looping a high shot into the far corner with 5:25 to play in the game. It was her second high school goal.
“My first goal was on the first free kick I ever took for De La Salle,” Velasco said. “That was against IC (Catholic). This was the second one I took, and I scored my second goal.”
Samuels made some huge saves to keep the deficit at 1-0 until Vlcek scored on a pair of headers — one just before halftime and one just after — to give the Titans some breathing room.
Junior midfielder Imani Coleman praised her De La Salle teammates.
“When they scored that first goal, it definitely slowed down our momentum a little bit,” Coleman said. “But I think we did a good job staying together as a team and not giving up right away.”
The Meteors will try to go out with a win Saturday.
Nunez, meanwhile, is hoping Velasco will be an even bigger force next season.
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“I think last year, being a transfer, she held back, not wanting to say too much,” Nunez said. “Now we’re reminding her this year that she’s an upperclassman and a major part of our program.
“She should be ready to take those big shots like she did in this game.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.